A quarter of a century after the 1783 Treaty of Paris which ended the war between Britain and her upstart North American colonies (which became the United States), the Royal Navy finally began work on a naval base at Bermuda, the primary purpose of which would be to keep a check on the new nation.

After much consideration was given to cutting a channel into Harrington Sound (which would have disrupted the main road from the ferry at Coney Island to the rest of Bermuda), the Royal Navy decided to place the base, or dockyard, at Ireland Island at the western end of Bermuda.

Like the many families removed during the building of Fort Bell and Kindley Field in the early 1940s, those displaced at Tucker’s Town in the 1920s, or those evicted in Devonshire in the 1840s and elsewhere (the list of appropriated lands in Bermuda is long, including those for the Bermuda Railway), some twenty families were forced to leave Ireland Island, for which the conveyances were found some years ago.

Homes and farms in what must have been an idyllic setting at the end of the world in Bermuda, as Ireland Island was only accessible by boat and was more remote than St David’s Island, disappeared in the construction of the Bermuda Dockyard.

That started in 1809 with the quarrying of the hard rock at Ireland Island North for the making of the 20 acres of fortifications (the 16 remaining acres are now the National Museum), the largest such British military works at Bermuda.

The fortifications were completed in the mid-1840s, so they took some 35 years to be erected.

At their apogee in the 1860s, 120 cannon were mounted on various carriages in the three outwork forts (only one is left and it was only just saved from demolition when a new prison was built in the early 1990s), the Land Front and Northwest Rampart, and in the “Keep”, or stronghold of the Dockyard defences.

In the 1870s, new types of guns forced the rearmament of the fortifications in what was known as the Rifled Muzzle Loader period (such guns are best seen at Scaur Hill Fort and St Catherine’s Fort, or discarded in the ditch at Fort Cunningham).

Becoming obsolete within two decades, the RMLs were replaced at the beginning of the 1900s with Rifled Breech Loaders (BLs), loaded from the rear, as opposed to the muzzle or front, as that is the more efficient method for firing such large guns.

Guns from the BL period can be seen at St David’s Battery and hopefully in due course at Alexandra Battery, both sites being in St George’s Parish.

Coastal defence in British dominions was declared obsolete in the late 1950s and in many places, including Bermuda, the guns were simply left to rot away, or were removed for scrap value.

That was certainly the case for carriages, as they contained a lot of bronze or brass fittings, which were of enough value to ship back to Britain for smelting for newer forms of artillery and other uses for such metals.

Hence at Bermuda for the RML period, we have one of the largest collections of gun barrels in the world, but a shortage of carriages and slides.

Only two guns (at Fort George) survive in their original emplacements with carriages and slides, whereas the mounted RMLs at Fort St Catherine were taken from Fort Albert in the 1950s.

Other than those six carriages and slides and one carriage at Alexandra Battery, no others have survived at Bermuda, but the barrels of various calibers are almost 50 in number.

Anyone wishing to rearm the forts of Bermuda is thus faced with expense of making replica carriages and slides for the RML era, while for earlier periods replica barrels would be need as well.

The National Museum has embarked on a long-term project of rearming the Keep, part of its home, which has another dozen emplacements that need guns, while several positions now are ready for battle as a result of restoration and replication.

One of the newer projects is the fabrication of a carriage and slide for the 18-ton RML that would rearm the Steinhoff Bastion, a project being sponsored by the local family of that name.

The carriage and slide, which weigh around 12 tons, are being fabricated by John Slough of London, master gunmakers, who have also made other replica items for local rearmaments, such as the armaments of the Martello Tower at Ferry Point, St George’s, executed for the Bermuda Government.

At the gun emplacement to the east of the Steinhoff Bastion, the Museum will place the 9-2-inch gun that once stood in the front of the St George’s hotel, last known as a Club Med, prior to the demolition of the building some years ago.

The carriage and barrel survive and the Neil Stempel Family is sponsoring that project.

An original breechblock has been found to complete the rearming, but it needs some replica parts and adjustments, which are being carried out by John Slough’s staff.

The fortifications of Bermuda, including those of the dockyard, should be seen and accepted as the major assets they are for the tourism economy.

Without guns, they are like reefs without fish as such weapons represent the life and reason for being of such monuments.

Those who have visited the Martello Tower, Scaur Hill Fort or Fort St. Catherine will appreciate the difference a gun makes.

That is not to say that the guns of a rearmed Keep will be used in any but the most diplomatic way to help to persuade those in authority to begin to understand and use the tourism firepower that lies latent in the monumental heritage of Bermuda forts and their extraordinary collection of historic artillery.

Edward Cecil Harris, MBE, JP, PHD, FSA is Director of the National Museum. Comments may be made to director@nmb.bm or 704-5480.